


A Quack, A Sandwich, A Pink Slip

by ThreeGousha



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Genre: Gen, Subway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 04:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17543012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeGousha/pseuds/ThreeGousha
Summary: Does anyone remember the time Heat O'Brien was fired from Subway? No? Well then please allow me to inform you of this three part tale.





	A Quack, A Sandwich, A Pink Slip

It was a wonderful day. The sun was shining brightly, beating down on the Earth with its unrelenting waves. Heat O’Brien had just started his first part-time job, being a sandwich maker at Subway. Fresh out of high school and starting his journey in life, it became clear he would need to do more than just hit the books. To make it in this world, one needed not only knowledge but wealth. Working at a food establishment was the only ground-level job he could acquire without prior experience.

The manager who hired him, Roland, was impressed with how quickly Heat picked up how to properly make a Subway sandwich and considered him one of his best employees, all except for the way he socialized with the customers. More often times than not, Heat would end up talking too much while working and end up annoying customers, or prospective ones waiting in line. He was often told by Roland to talk less and work more, but Heat continued on like he usually would. Work continued on this way for three months. Until…

Heat showed up to start his morning shift, walking into the back and punching his employee ID number into a small, rectangular machine mounted on the wall next to the restaurant’s back door. After his timestamp was accepted and he adjusted his nametag, he went to wash his hands.

Roland walked by Heat while he was washing his hands and said, “I’m hiring another manager here. He’s been successful at our sister location in the next town over and said he wanted to transfer here so he’d be closer to the university.”

“What’s his name?” Heat asked while drying his hands off. He grabbed a pair of vinyl gloves from a box sitting next to the work sink and put them on.

“Serph Sheffield. You know Heat, it might not be a bad thing for you to look into furthering your education yourself. You don’t want to be a sandwich maker for the rest of your life, do you?” Very seldom did Roland bring up personal life issues up on the job, but he felt that there could possibly be tension between Heat and Serph because of the education gap. “Have you looked into any vocational school courses?”

Heat shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t mind working here honestly. I’d like to get a decent car before I consider starting at a university or anything like that. Riding the transit bus to and from would make my schedule too cramped.”

Roland sighed. He didn’t know what else he could say on the situation and didn’t want to pry too much into an employee’s personal life. Instead, he just informed Heat, “We have a scholarship for employees if you ever do pursue a degree. The new manager will be starting tomorrow.”

Heat shook his head, “Alright, I’ll show him how things work around here,” with a smug smile on his face as if he felt superior to the new arrival. After getting his till from Roland, Heat slide on a pair of vinyl gloves and began the day’s work.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next morning Heat showed up for work, only to find that the back door was still locked. It was an hour till opening, which meant prep work needed to be taken care of, among other things. He crossed his arms and leaned against the door, “Roland acted like this new guy was some kind of hotshot.” He sighed and closed his eyes.

After roughly five minutes ticked by, Heat heard someone say, “Can you move? You’re clocking the door.”

Heat opened his eyes and responded, “You should’ve been here to open the door before I got here.” The man was shorter than him, younger too. His hair was charcoal black, and his face was expressionless. Heat stepped aside, away from the door, and continued talking, “You the new manager? The hotshot college kid, Serph?”

After Serph unlocked the door and shoved his keys back into his pocket he responded, “I’m your manager and that’s all you need to know.” He opened the door and held it until Heat grabbed it himself, then walked inside. Heat followed.

Heat punched in his employee number and turned around to go wash his hands, like any other day. As he was washing his hands, he noticed that Serph hadn’t gone over to punch his employee number in and was still considered as being off the clock. Heat dried off his hands, then peered into the manager’s office to see Serph sitting there, going through various papers that lay on his desk. “Uhhh….” He twiddled his thumbs.

Serph looked up from his papers, raising a brow, “What? Shouldn’t you be starting prep work?”

“Well, it’s just that you uhhhh…. You didn’t clock in. Wouldn’t that look weird to the higher ups if I’m on the clock without a manager?”

Laying his papers down, Serph stood up from his desk without saying a word, and not looking Heat in the eyes. He didn’t want to acknowledge that he’d made such a ground level mistake on his first day at a new location. After all, it's not like the previous Subway didn’t have a time clock. After punching his employee number, he returned to his desk and continued sorting through papers, “Oh yeah, I brought an employee with me. His name’s Gale, but he won’t be here until this evening. Now, go get to work.”

Heat rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything. He had mixed feelings about the new manager. On one hand, he did have a certain aura about him that demanded you listen to him, but on the other hand, there was something about him that seemed innocent, almost childlike. Whatever that was, Heat couldn’t put his finger on and didn’t bother dwelling over it.

After going to the front and turning the lights on and sticking bread in the proofer to allow it to rise, Heat grabbed vegetables from the prep area and began cutting them up when the new employee arrived, Gale. Heat looked up from his cutting board and asked, “You here to do prep too?”

Gale bowed before Heat and said, “I’m terribly sorry for being late. I was unaware of the exact location of this building,” he raised his torso back up, “Yes I am here to do prep, or rather, learn how. I typically worked closing shifts at my previous location, so I know very little of the opening process.”

“Well, for starters go and look over the store. Clean up anything night shift might have left behind. After that, start heating the meatballs and soup.” Heat looked back down at his cutting board and continued working.

Gale nodded his head, “Of course!” 

The next hour went along surprisingly quiet. Everyone tended to their respective jobs and didn’t say anything to each other, but the quiet bothered Heat. He didn’t mind it, but it was too quiet. To his surprise, he couldn’t find any switches for the radio or see any overhead speakers. After putting freshly cut vegetables in their containers on the bar, he found Gale sweeping the lobby. He asked him, “Do you think it would be more lively around here if we had some kind of music?”

Gale kept sweeping, not bothering to look up or at Heat, responding, “It’s true people are more likely to go to a place with good atmosphere, rather than a place without.” The rest of the opening and preparation process continued on with uneventful conversation between the three of them.

When Heat flipped the sign from closed to open, he told Gale to run the register, and that he would handle making the sandwiches. “You have run a register before, right? Ours is pretty simple, but the receipt sometimes takes a while to print. I kept telling Roland to get a different printer but well, he’s Roland.”

Gale put his broom back up, having continued sweeping until Heat turned the sign over. He took his place at the register and answered him, Yes, I’m fully capable of completing basic mathematical functions on a register.”

Heat squinted his eyes at Gale as he walked over to the bread-area, “You sure you’re not a robot? You sound like a robot to me.” He tightened his arms against his side, then raised his forearms to a ninety-degree angle. In a jerky, harsh voice he mocked Gale, “My name is 0288762, otherwise known as Human. Gale. I am. A sandwich maker.” Heat lowered his arms and started laughing. He continued to laugh as he made sure the bread warmers had been turned up high enough to keep the bread from going stale.

In response, Gale just groaned and mumbled, “How did Roland deal with him?”

Heat huffed and crossed his arms, “Well that’s no way to make a good impression on your new coworker."

**Author's Note:**

> To be very honest I as high when I started writing this and it just sort of. Kept going.


End file.
